In 2017, we played and really enjoyed Supply Lines of the American Revolution: The Northern Theater, 1775-1777 from Hollandspiele and were impressed with the way the game modeled the importance of supply and logistics during the first three years of the American Revolutionary War. Recently we finally had an opportunity to play the follow-up game in the series called, you guessed it, Supply Lines of the American Revolution: The Southern Strategy which shifts the scene of the fighting to the Southern colonies of Virginia, Georgia, and North and South Carolina. This edition of the system has a very different feel and emphasis than its predecessor. In the Southern Theater, both combatants have much smaller armies with fewer resources. Maneuver is more central to each player this time around and there are new Siege and Naval Battle rules that provide new opportunities for attack. The big change though is the addition of Partisans who don’t directly fight against the opposition but provide support in the background with holding spaces to extend supply lines, running raids to disrupt enemy supply and supplementing the armies in the theater with new recruits.

While I have not yet finished the series, I have written a few Action Point Posts talking about different aspects of the design and you can read those as the following links:

Action Point 1 – we covered the Mapsheet looking at the differences between the various spaces including Cities, Forts and Points while also covering the various Sea Zones and Partisan Boxes and how they function in the game.

Action Point 2 – we examined the different Units including Leaders, Soldiers, Navies and Partisans.

We also posted an interview with the designer Amabel Holland you can read that here to get even more detail into the design (keep in mind this interview was posted in 2018 before the designer’s name change): https://theplayersaid.com/2018/05/14/interview-with-tom-russell-designer-of-supply-lines-of-the-american-revolution-the-southern-strategy-from-hollandspiele/

-Grant